Move Records Australian classical & art music, est. 1968

The Ring of Bone

While the past decade has seen recordings of Elisabeth Lutyens’ chamber and choral works released to critical acclaim, her piano music has remained obscure. Pianist Arabella Teniswood-Harvey has carefully researched and here presents that neglected repertoire.

Arabella Teniswood-Harvey piano
Helen Noonan speaker
Elisabeth Lutyens composer

Lutyens’ musical language is passionate, dramatic and highly assertive. She exploits both the percussive and the sonorous capabilities of the piano to great effect. This recording reveals a valuable body of work that spans the 1940s to the early 1980s.

I think you would love her or loathe her. No half-measures. She was provocative and outspoken, deeply sensitive and fragile – uncomfortable contradictions that are embodied in her music. She had remained an authentic Fitzrovia bohemian twenty years on, fuelled by booze and cigarettes, an artist whose work was confrontational and whose intelligence commanded respect. I found that she was a delight to play for, I think she found musical performance rather sexy, and she was seemingly fascinated by colour-in-sound, her piano-writing is, above all, extremely sensual. The sensuality includes violence, darkness and pain as much as it does delicacy and fluidity. Liz honed away at her sounds, sculpting, polishing them rather than covering them with varnish.

— Michael Finnissy

Reviews

There is no other recording to compare this one with, and indeed that’s the whole point of it. Arabella Teniswood-Harvey has made a very important contribution, a recording that could remain authoritative for decades. This is high-quality playing; firm, clear, and strong, with a beautiful sound over a huge dynamic range. Thanks and congratulations!

— Peter Billam, Music Forum Magazine

Artists

Photograph of Arabella Teniswood-Harvey

Arabella Teniswood-Harvey

Arabella Teniswood-Harvey is a Tasmanian-born pianist who studied in Melbourne and, in 1999, was awarded a full scholarship to the Australian National Academy of Music’s inaugural Advanced Performance Program.

Photograph of Elisabeth Lutyens

Elisabeth Lutyens

Elisabeth Lutyens as one of the five children of architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and his wife Emily, who was profoundly involved in the Theosophical Movement. From 1911 the young Krishnamurti was living in their London house as a friend of Elisabeth and her sisters. At age nine she began to aspire to be a composer, which given the prowess of her father in architecture, and the domineering nature of her mother, allowed her to elude her parents' attempt to live vicariously through their children.

Audio previews

Tracks

    Five Intermezzi, op. 9 (1942) Elisabeth Lutyens

  1. i. Allegro moderato 1:25
  2. ii. Allegro, ma non troppo, ma agitato :35
  3. iii. Allegretto capricioso :40
  4. iv. Adagio 1:44
  5. v. Poco allegro e con moto :43

    6. Three Improvisations (1948) Elisabeth Lutyens

  6. Adumbration 1:59
  7. Obfuscation :56
  8. Peroration 1:30

    9. Five Bagatelles, Op. 49 (1962) Elisabeth Lutyens

  9. 1 1:45
  10. 2 1:08
  11. 3 2:08
  12. 4 1:25
  13. 5 1:09
  14. The Ring of Bone, Op. 106 (1975) Elisabeth Lutyens 13:36

    15. Seven Preludes, Op. 126 (1978) Elisabeth Lutyens

  15. i. “…whose name was writ in water” 3:42
  16. ii. Night Winds 4:08
  17. iii. Starlight 1:07
  18. iv. Tenebrae 2:11
  19. v. “strange thunders from the potency of song” 3:08
  20. vi. Labyrinths 4:04
  21. vii. “The shifting of mighty winds that blow hither and thither all the changing thoughts of man” 4:37
  22. La Natura dell’ Acqua, Op. 154 (1981) Elisabeth Lutyens 9:26

Performers

Contributors

No photograph: Conrad Clark

Cover painting

Conrad Clark

Where to listen

The Ring of Bone is available for streaming through Apple Music. It can also be purchased through the iTunes Music Store.

The Ring of Bone is available as a CD. It can be purchased online through Buywell Music or the Australian Music Centre which both offer online ordering.

Product details

Catalogue number
MD 3354
List price
$25.00 AUD
Total playing time
63 minutes 6 seconds
Recording Engineer
Vaughan McAlley
Mastering Engineer
Martin Wright
Venue
Move Records Studio
Thanks to
British Library
University of Tasmania
University of York Music Press
Credit
Conrad Clark
Release date
Musical work
copyright
© 2011 Move Records
Sound recording
copyright
℗ 2011 Move Records
Categories
Classical, Keyboard
Genres
Modernist Classical, Contemporary Classical
Barcode
EAN 9314574335422

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